Truck drivers are suffering in 2019 — especially those who own or work at small businesses.

Rates in the spot market, in which retailers and manufacturers buy trucking capacity as they need it rather than through a contract, sank by around 15% year-over-year in Aug. That has caused truckers like Demetrius Wilburn, a Georgia-based driver, to find themselves unemployed.

Wilburn bought his semitruck four years ago after years of working as a company truck driver. But amid rock-bottom rates, Wilburn wasn't able to make a payment one month — and his truck was repossessed.

"I was only six months away from paying it off," Wilburn told Business Insider. "I'm trying to transition back into law enforcement now — don't want to ever drive trucks again. Definitely not worth it."

Here are some of the larger trucking companies that have gone bankrupt in 2019, and how many truckers who are now out of a job. We used the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's company-snapshot tool to measure how many truck drivers worked at each company.

"We tried to provide a healthy work environment for our employees and give them the best wages and benefits we could, but in the end, the rates that were available did not support the cost structure needed to compensate our employees appropriately," Bell said.

ALA Trucking — 32 truck drivers

David Goldman/AP

Effective June 26, the Anderson, Indiana-based trucking company ALA Trucking Inc. shut down after 31 years in operation. Along with 15 other employees, 41 truckers with ALA lost their jobs.